RadATL Atlanta shows

Kirkwood Ballers Club feat Bl_ank, FRANKS atl, and more at Eyedrum on Thur., Oct. 16

Every third Thursday of the month, Kirkwood Ballers Club takes over Eyedrum with an open forum for experimental, improvisational, and otherwise adventurous musicians and performance artists. It is the long-standing home to Atlanta’s avant-garde, experimental, and DIY musical underground. This month’s KBC takes place on Thursday, October 16. The lineup for the evening features a headlining performance by Bl_ank, the solo project of Portland Oregon’s electro-acoustic percussionist Will Hicks.

Alchemical String Theory, FRANKS atl, Stench, Anucon, Toilet Envy, RGB & the Hell, Nathaniel Trost, and Momm are also on the bill.

FRANKS atl. Photo by Ben Garden.

FRANKS atl, the two-piece collaboration featuring Frank Schultz (formerly of Duet For Theremin and Lap Steel) and B. Frank Holleran (W8ing4UFOs, ex-Smoke), are releasing a debut album, titled Ode to Lucenay’s Peter. They’re also hosting a Bandcamp release party on Oct. 19. Press play below for an enticing teaser of what they have in store.


$10. Doors open at 8 p.m. Music starts at 8:30 p.m. This is an all ages show. Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery, 515 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd.

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What’s the point of saying destroy? A five-week seminar examining punk as a cultural phenomenon

NEON CHRIST: Photo by Chuck Gill

“All over the country / We want a new direction. I said all over this land / We need a reaction. Well there should be a youth explosion / Inflate creation. But something we can command. What’s the point in saying destroy?”

— The Jam, “All Around The World”

On Wednesday, May 3 at 6 p.m., Randy Gue will kick off the inaugural session of a five-week seminar, titled “What’s the Point of Saying Destroy?’: Punk and the DIY Ethos,” at The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University.

Think of the seminar as Punk 101, an informal class that touches on all things punk, hardcore, and DIY, and how the culture has changed over the decades.

Gue is the Curator of the Political, Cultural, and Social Movements Collection at Emory’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. He’s also vocalist and guitar player for the “wordcore” outfit El Matador, a former auxiliary member of Atlanta’s ‘80s hardcore luminaries Neon Christ, and one of the masterminds behind Emory’s “Create Your Own Culture: Art, Punk, and DIY Fest.”

Throughout these hour-long sessions (from 6-7 p.m. every other Wednesday until the end of June), conversations will be guided by listening to songs—by the Ramones and beyond—and reading select texts and news articles from the last 40+ years. Come as you are. Attendees will receive a free copy of Osa Atoe’s recently published “Shotgun Seamstress,” an anthology of the Black punk zine.

The sessions are free to attend but space is limited. Send an email to foxcenter@emory.edu. to RSVP. 1635 N Decatur Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322

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Create Your Own Culture! Emory’s art, punk, and DIY fest returns on Thursday, April 7

After two years in the void, Emory University’s DIY fest returns on Thursday, April 7. Check out live music from Loony and the debut of El Matador (feat. Katy Graves from Catfight, Randy Gue of Final Offering, and Chris Pollette).

Stations will be set up for silkscreening T-shirts, making buttons, woodblock prints, learning how to write graffiti with Mad Clout, and more + Randy’s famous tower of pizza will be in full effect. Come hungry and pre game for the Spits show at the Earl later that night.

Free. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Emory’s Visual Arts Building and Campus Life Pavillion. 700 Peavine Creek Drive. Parking is available in the Peavine Parking Deck at 22 Eagle Row.

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We’re Not Here to Entertain: Punk rock, Ronald Reagan, and the real culture war of 1980s America

The specter of nuclear annihilation that hung over the Reagan era feels somewhat quaint now, in light of just how much President Trump’s draconian administration, the global pandemic, and the oppressive grind of social media have twisted up the American psyche circa 2020. Still, the 1980s were a fertile time for punk rock’s cultural growth on American soil.

In We’re Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America, author and Connor Study Professor of Contemporary History at Ohio University Kevin Mattson delves into the golden era of hardcore, punk and DIY culture blooming in the shadow of the Gipper. Countering the oppressive forces of a conservative White House regime, a community bound by the music of groups such as the Dead Kennedys, the Dils, Minor Threat, the Avengers, Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, Black Flag, and more was compelled to enact empowering social change that still resonates around the planet.

On Tuesday, September 29, Mattson will join GSU history professor and author John McMillian (Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America, Beatles vs. Stones) and yours truly, music writer and editor Chad Radford, to discuss the book, the music, and more.

Tues., Sept. 29. 7 p.m. It’s free to sign in for our Zoom conversation. Head over to www.acappellabooks.com for details.